Fantasies of the Bookstore

This Element surveys the place of the bookstore in the creative imagination (the fantasies of the bookstore) through a study of novels in which bookstores play a prominent role in the setting or plot. Nearly 500 'bookstore novels' published since the first in 1917 have been identified. The study borrows the concept of 'meaningful locations' from the field of human geography to assess fictional bookstores as narrative events rather than static backgrounds. As a meaningful location, the bookstore creates the potential for events that can occur both within the place of the store and in the wider space within which it functions. Elements of the narrative space include its spatio-temporal location, its locale or composition, and the events which these elements generate to define the bookstore's sense of place.

List of contents

Introduction: Bookstores in Fiction; 1. The bookstore as meaningful location; 2. Location & Locale; 3. Sense of Place; 4. The Fantasy of the Bookstore.

Summary

This Element surveys the place of the bookstore in the creative imagination (the fantasies of the bookstore) through a study of novels in which bookstores play a prominent role in the setting or plot. Nearly 500 'bookstore novels' published since the first in 1917 have been identified.

Product details

• Authors: Eben J. Muse, Eben J. (Bangor University) Muse, Muse Eben J.
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press ELT
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 30.06.2022
• EAN: 9781108445399
• ISBN: 978-1-108-44539-9
• No. of pages: 75
• Series: Elements in Publishing and Book Culture
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > Other languages / Other literatures; Social sciences, law, business > Media, communication > Journalism; Modern & contemporary fiction (post c 1945), FICTION / Literary, FICTION / Classics, Classic fiction (pre c 1945), LITERARY CRITICISM / Semiotics & Theory, Literary studies: general, Literary theory, Literary studies: fiction, novelists & prose writers, Literary studies: fiction, novelists and prose writers, Modern and contemporary fiction: general and literary, Classic fiction: general and literary, LITERARY CRITICISM / Novel as Form